Two days before moving, Greg Williams received a call from Lynbrook apartments in west Omaha.

"One of the first things she said was, 'You're a criminal and you can't stay here,'" Williams recalled.

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Williams knew the background check run on him was incorrect.

"I'm thinking identity theft and someone is trying to be me," he said.

However, that wasn't the case. Williams spent days digging for answers, eventually finding TransUnion. It was the company that conducted the screening for Lynbrook apartment, who told Williams in a letter that it made a mistake and inaccurately pulled data on a Greg Williams in North Carolina.

"It was a person with my name, my birth date," Williams said.

The Greg Williams from North Carolina was charged in Henderson County with first-degree rape.

"It put me in a bad situation," Williams said.

Eric Thompson works from Trak-1, a screening company in Omaha. He said cases of mistaken identity during background checks are common if the screening company cuts corners.

"These are common names, common names have to be verified the right way," Thompson said.

Thompson said apartments are required by federal law to send an adverse action letter and copy of background report within 90 days, and said there's a push to shorten that time to 30 days. For Williams, though, he was ready to move and hopes to put the mistaken connection behind him.

The management company for Lynbrook declined to comment and KETV NewsWatch 7's calls to TransUnion weren't returned.